DOT says Slocum interchange designed with safety in mind

Wednesday

N.C. Department of Transportation officials say safety and efficiency is behind the design of the U.S. 70-Slocum Road interchange, and they don’t plan any changes to jeopardize that.

N.C. Department of Transportation officials say safety and efficiency is behind the design of the U.S. 70-Slocum Road interchange, and they don’t plan any changes to jeopardize that.

Havelock city officials expressed concern last week over DOT’s failure to address their suggestions on changes to the project. While they believe changes to the U.S. 70-Slocum Road intersection that leads to Cherry Point’s back gate are needed, they weren’t overly thrilled with designs that include a reconfiguration of the entrances to the Tucker Creek, MacDonald Downs and Hickman Hills subdivisions.

Matthew Potter, project development engineer, said J.W. Rouse, the new DOT district head engineer, has given his approval of the design.

The centerpiece of the $20.5 million project is a flyover that will feed base-bound traffic from eastbound U.S. 70 to an overpass that crosses above westbound U.S. 70. That is designed to help eliminate rush-hour backups at the current traffic signal along U.S. 70 as well as help eliminate vehicle crashes.

The solution has been sought and studied for the past five years and has support from residents, city officials and those in charge at Cherry Point.

The controversy arises from other design features that are planned in the vicinity of the interchange, including the elimination of traffic patterns at the current Tucker Creek traffic signal that would force some residents to make U-turns along U.S. 70 to access their neighborhoods.

“We’re not trying to force anything on the city,” Potter said. “Our job is to try to fix capacity issues and things like that. The movement into the base was identified as a problem in this area and the DOT’s job is to come in and find the best way to alleviate the issues that have been identified. To fix that problem, you need to make some other changes, and the proposal that we’ve put out there we feel is the best way to make those changes in the long run.

“We’ve listened to what the city has had to say and we had some concerns with some of the things they wanted us to do because they were in conflict with the ultimate goal of increasing the capacity and making this a safer and more efficient section of U.S. 70.”

Among the issues is the closure of the entrance to MacDonald Downs from U.S. 70. The state plans to funnel traffic from the neighborhood out through a new connector road that will be called Marsha’s Way, then make entry to U.S. 70 via Pine Grove Road at the current traffic signal in front of Wells Wayside Furniture.

The current entrance would conflict with an acceleration lane from Slocum Road onto U.S. 70 West, Potter said.

“Ultimately, the DOT’s goal along U.S. 70 is to try to shut down these access points when we can,” Potter said. “The safest and best way to give access to major roads like U.S. 70 is through signalized intersections. That way, all the movements are protected for the people coming and going from that neighborhood.

“Yes, there may be some travel time difference of two to three minutes to make that travel for the extra distance required, but ultimately it’s a much safer alternative and some of that travel time is actually made up by not having to sit and wait for gaps in traffic like they do now.”

Traffic from MacDonald Downs will join with traffic from nearby Tucker Creek and both neighborhoods will use Pine Grove Road to enter U.S. 70 via a newly designed “superstreet” intersection that will permit left turns but won’t allow vehicles to travel straight through the intersection to Hickman Hills. For example, a Hickman Hills resident who drops their child off at Tucker Creek Middle School would have to make a right turn on westbound U.S. 70 and then a U-turn onto eastbound U.S. 70 to get back home.

“To handle that additional capacity is why we are looking at that superstreet design so that it is reducing the delays for both Tucker Creek and MacDonald Downs,” Potter said. “That new superstreet design is much more efficient than what is out there now. It will be able to handle a much larger amount of traffic through that intersection with less delay than what is out there now.”

The new design would prevent westbound traffic from making left turns into Hickman Hills and eastbound traffic from making left turns to Tucker Creek or MacDonald Downs. In each case, drivers would have to continue a few hundred yards beyond the intersection, then make U-turns onto the highway to access their neighborhoods.

“We’ve had multiple engineers look at this design and we’ve gone over all of the concerns that the city had,” Potter said. “ ... Everyone that has looked at it has agreed that the improvements that we are proposing are the best solution for this area.

“From an outside perspective, it does put a little bit of a burden on some of the neighborhoods. It’s different than what they are used to now, but I think once improvements are made, people will start to realize that the time that they were spending sitting and waiting to make a left turn onto U.S. 70 is actually made up for by not having to wait as long.”

Potter also said that the city has expressed interest in having a pedestrian path to join MacDonald Downs and Tucker Creek. He said that contrary to earlier information, the state would pay 70 percent of the cost of the sidewalk, with the city paying the other 30 percent, plus maintenance.

At their meeting last week, Havelock commissioners expressed a desire to meet with DOT officials to further refine the plan.

“We feel confident with this as is,” Potter said of the plan. “There’s always room for changes to be made, but we are moving forward with the plan as we have it right now. We’re open to talk to the city. We’re willing to explain why we’re not making changes, which is something we’ve done in the past. We’re trying to develop the best solution that will work for everyone. That’s what our goal is.

“We’re not making these decisions for no reason. I thought that we had done a good job of explaining our reasons, but ultimately the city is going to agree with it or not, but at this time the DOT feels that we have a good design and we’re prepared to move forward with it.”